This paper is a first attempt at differentiating the problems of finance of the privately held small businesses from their larger counterparts. Small businesses, though not concerned with the problems and opportunities associated with publicly traded firms, have different types of complexities,...

Previous studies of large versus small company performance, though frequent, have not produced a clear answer as to whether large companies outperform small companies or vice versa. This article highlights retentions - the fact that different companies have different dividend policies —as a...

Small businesses do not share the same financial management problems with large businesses. This paper shows that the source of the differences could be traced to several characteristics unique to small businesses. This uniqueness in turn creates a whole new set of financial management issues....

In an emerging field of scholarship such as Small Business Finance, there is often a chicken-and-egg problem at the outset. Prospective researchers are generally discouraged by an initial lack of infrastructure such as relevant bibliographic facilities, journals, conferences and data sources. In...

Ratio analysis is generally presented as something that has to be calculated after completing other financial statements and is generally viewed, particularly by students, as busy-work with little value. This paper changes the context of ratio analysis in order to demonstrate how a focus on the...

We empirically examine a sample of over 350 entrepreneurial firms that successfully receive an SBA guaranteed loan. The first portion of the paper contains descriptive statistics that lend anecdotal evidence concerning the organization type of borrowers, the incidence of collateral, the reasons...

The close link between the personal financial affairs of a small business owner and his or her firm has been noted in prior research. This article compares attitudes toward risk on the part of small business owners (SBOs) and non-small business owners (NSBOs). In addition, it compares the...

The importance of an accurate sales forecast to financial management in general is well documented. Although large firms' forecasting practices as they relate to financial management have been surveyed, this is the first such study on small (manufacturing) firms. Surprisingly, the two groups are...

This paper contains a review of issues pertaining to the valuation of privately held businesses, noting significant inconsistencies in the rationale and approaches taken in the valuation process. In addition to suggesting that appraisers stay with the "tried and true" rather than testing the...

This paper attempts to extend the Certification Paradigm--mainly used in the literature as an explanation for IPO underpricings--to provide guidelines to entrepreneurs in their efforts to secure funding for new ventures. After extending the model to cases of pre-venture-capital start-up firms,...